I begged my doctor for one more linehttps://themoviewer.wordpress.com
He said son, words fail meMon, 19 Mar 2018 09:09:15 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/97cf7759b2f0544715a9d9932dda286a?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pngI begged my doctor for one more linehttps://themoviewer.wordpress.com
Oscars 2013 Best Picture Posters Redesignedhttps://themoviewer.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/oscars-2013-best-picture-posters-redesigned/
https://themoviewer.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/oscars-2013-best-picture-posters-redesigned/#respondTue, 19 Feb 2013 15:24:55 +0000http://themoviewer.wordpress.com/?p=1192Designed by Gallery1988and various artists in collaboration with (or commissioned by?) The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, for this year’s Best Picture nominees:

My absolute favourite. From the red, to the flag, to the tear that seems to turn into blood halfway, the poster’s full of clever, subtle symbolism and says so much with such a simple design.

I noticed a trend with quite a number of the posters focusing heavily on elements of nation and cultural identity, which made me realise how many of this year’s nominees have national or cultural issues as a major theme of the film. The poster for Life of Pi is heavily inspired by Indian culture – the colours, symbols, and circular, symmetrical designs all borrow generously from that – and the posters for Argo and Zero Dark Thirtygo a step further to incorporate national flags as the basic groundworks of the whole poster. I’m still trying to figure the Lincoln one out – I’m not sure if the colours allude to the American flag, or the apartheid system.

Interestingly, the Silver Linings Playbook poster really reminds me of the series of posters Mondo did for the Marvel superheroes.

]]>https://themoviewer.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/oscars-2013-best-picture-posters-redesigned/feed/0Oscars Posters - Les MiserablesangelaleongOscars Posters - Life of PiOscars Posters - ArgoOscars Posters - Zero Dark ThirtyOscars Posters - LincolnOscars Posters - Silver Linings PlaybookCaptain America MondoThe Avengers MondoWhy Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar snub is a moral outragehttps://themoviewer.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/mendelsons-memos-why-kathryn-bigelows-oscar-snub-is-a-moral-outrage/
https://themoviewer.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/mendelsons-memos-why-kathryn-bigelows-oscar-snub-is-a-moral-outrage/#respondTue, 19 Feb 2013 15:20:03 +0000http://themoviewer.wordpress.com/?p=1197Because it’s the start of the school week, and because I happen to be doing a project somewhat (i.e. very remotely) related to this issue, here’s a departure from the posters and trivia I’ve been putting up the last couple of days. Mr. Scott Mendelson has given a very detailed and insightful critique of the controversy surrouding Zero Dark Thirty‘s portrayal of torture, at his blog Mendelson’s Memos. Head over for the full analysis; here are select lines I found the most powerful.

Many who were too timid or wrongheaded to fully voice their opposition to torture back when it was first uncovered back in 2004 are now offering full-throated and fiery condemnations of Ms. Bigelow for showing recreations of torture and accusing her of endorsing the practice merely by refusing to explicitly condemn it. […] The core sin of Zero Dark Thirty is that it didn’t have a supporting character on the sidelines talking about the immorality and/or impracticality of torture. It didn’t have a big scene where the major characters have a debate on torture. Now such a scene would be implausible considering the film as it exists, yet the absence of this kind of condescending hand-holding has now opened the film up to accusations, from politicians, pundits, even religious leaders.

All because Bigelow and Boal didn’t spoon-feed their opinions to the audience in a way that made for easy digestion. They didn’t have a fictionalized scene where a character explicitly explains to the audience how they got each piece of vital information over the eight years during which the film takes place. They trusted the audience to make the connections. It’s the connection between the opening torture scene and the horrifying terrorist massacre that the torture fails to prevent. It’s the connection between the stopping of torture and use of trickery that elicits worthwhile information that eventually, eight years later and only after the discovery of information that had been in an old file all along, leads to Bin Laden’s compound. It’s the connection that bribery elicits the key information late in the game rather than torture. It’s the very fact that the film’s climactic raid is the least cathartic and least empowering moment of American violence one can imagine. Those whining that the film endorses torture seem to miss the point that the film doesn’t entirely endorse the execution of Osama Bin Laden, presenting it as perhaps a necessary evil but a vile, horrific, and brutish act of foreign aggression nonetheless.

Bigelow and Boal could have pitched the film to the dumber members of the audience. They could have had scenes where characters explicitly explained their own moral stances and/or the progression of information that is discovered over eight long and bloody years. They chose instead to trust the audience and the mainstream media and publicity-hungry politicians have betrayed that trust. Bigelow and Boal trusted our intelligence and the reaction to the picture has now insulted our intelligence.

Truly adult films don’t hold our hands and explain everything to the audience. And in today’s 24-hour shock/outrage news cycle, there is no real chance for such a film. In an era where showing off behavior is automatically seen as endorsing it, in a time where a rather conventional hero’s journey like Django Unchained is considered ‘brave’ and/or ‘courageous’ purely because it happens to be about slavery, […] there is no room for subtly and nuance in today’s entertainment discourse. And that’s the real moral outrage. Bigelow will be fine. The film remains untouched for those who love it. But the damage has been done and the message is clear: Don’t treat adults like adults or you will be pounced upon like screaming children.

– Scott Mendelson

*My project’s actually an argument for/against legalising torture, specifically psychological torture or deportation (that the right word?) to countries that do torture, in response to the ticking time bomb scenario. Somewhat related.

Doing this post got me curious about the golden man. Is that really a sword he’s holding? The next logical step was, naturally, to turn to Google for help. The most interesting stuff I learnt came from this article:

In 1928, Emilio Fernández Romo, a former Huertista rebel who’d been exiled to Los Angeles, was asked for an odd favor. Could he pose for a sketch, in the nude, holding a sword?

Fernández—half Mexican, half Kickapoo Indian, and nicknamed “El Indio”—worked as an extra in Hollywood. He was, perhaps understandably, noncommittal. But his friend, Dolores, was asking on behalf of her husband, Cedric Gibbons, chief art director at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). In the end, Fernández agreed. Gibbons’ sketch became the basis for a small clay sculpture, intended to resemble a crusader with his sword. The sculpture was then molded and cast in metal 13.5 inches high.

The first Oscars were cast in solid bronze and then plated with 24-karat gold. After just a few years, perhaps in response to the Great Depression, bronze was replaced by britannium—an alloy made primarily of tin. Today, the britannium castings are electroplated with copper, then nickel silver, and finally the 24-karat gold.

Each Oscar statuette stands on a base resembling a five-spoked film reel. Each spoke symbolizes one of the original branches of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: directors, actors, writers, producers, and technicians.

Two actors have declined an Oscar: George C. Scott in 1970 (for Patton), and Marlon Brando in 1972 (for The Godfather).

Two actors have received a posthumous Oscar: Peter Finch in 1976 (for Network), and Heath Ledger in 2008 (for The Dark Knight). Both men were Australian.

The statuette’s official name is the Academy Award of Merit. The origin of the nickname “Oscar” is disputed. The earliest mention of the moniker in print appears in 1934, in an article by gossip columnist Sidney Skolsky about Katherine Hepburn’s Best Actress win for Morning Glory. Margaret Herrick, the Academy’s librarian, supposedly nicknamed the statuette on her first day on the job in 1931. She remarked that it resembled an uncle of hers, second-cousin Oscar Pierce. Actress Bette Davis also claimed to have nicknamed it—for her husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson. Whoever coined the name, “Oscar” was first used at the 1934 awards banquet, and by 1939 it had been officially adopted by the Academy.

After Vivien Leigh’s Oscar for Gone with the Wind was sold at auction for $510,000, the Academy instated a policy whereby an Oscar owner (its winner or inheritor), before auctioning the statuette, must first offer to sell it to the Academy for $1. If the Academy declines, he or she is free to hawk it. Several times, Oscars have been purchased by anonymous bidders, only to be returned to the Academy. Bette Davis’ Oscar for Jezebel ($578,000) and Clark Gable’s for It Happened One Night ($607,000) are two. Both times, the anonymous bidder was Steven Spielberg.

(c) Andreas Weber

The Academy’s official site runs a page for the origin of the statuette as well, but it doesn’t mention El Indio.

Shortly after the formation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927, the fledgling organization held a dinner in the Crystal Ballroom of the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles to set out its goals. Among the topics discussed that night was how best to honor outstanding moviemaking achievements and thereby encourage excellence in all facets of motion picture production.

Agreeing to institute an annual award, the group turned its attention to creating a suitably majestic trophy. MGM art director Cedric Gibbons designed a statuette of a knight standing on a reel of film gripping a crusader’s sword. The Academy tapped Los Angeles sculptor George Stanley to realize the design in three dimensions – and the world-renowned statuette was born.

Additional trivia:

Since the initial awards banquet on May 16, 1929, in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel’s Blossom Room, 2,809 statuettes have been presented. Each January, additional new golden statuettes are cast, molded, polished and buffed by R.S. Owens & Company, the Chicago-based awards manufacturer retained by the Academy since 1982.

Although the statuette remains true to its original design, the size of the base varied until 1945, when the current standard was adopted.

“The commemorative poster was designed by English artist, graphic designer and illustrator Olly Moss in collaboration with Gallery1988. The special edition piece features 85 Oscar statuettes, each one distinctly inspired by the Best Picture winners from 1927 to 2012.”

Head over to the photo gallery to look at each statuette in detail. It’s cool to look at Mr. Moss’s re-imagining of each year’s Best Picture winner, and to the movie each statuette represents. I went waaaaaay back to… 1994, and could guess only about half the Best Picture winners (below).

Everyone should have crossed the Greenwich Meridian* by now, so I assume it’s safe to wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day. Here, have a rose:

But over here Feb 14 means a little more than Valentine’s Day… it also means 10 days to go before the Oscars.^

Because Day 1 of the just so happens to coincide with St. Valentine’s Day, what better way to kick-start the countdown to the Academy Awards on 24 February, than this series of Valentine’s Day ecards over at the Oscars page? Created by Nan Lawson, they feature exchanges from five classic films.

Gone with the Wind

West Side Story

It Happened One Night

The Sound of Music

Casablanca

A day may come when I can read these quotes and instantly pick out which movies they were taken from, but unfortunately it is not this day.

*I have a feeling that’s something scientifically inaccurate about that line. Forgive me if that is indeed the case.

^Why ten, though? Why not 7 Days to the Oscars, or a fortnight? I suppose, in a way, that’s like asking why end-of-the-year lists are always ten and only ten films (though the Oscars Best Picture nominees number 9 this year). No one really knows.

Film Jockeys #5: The Snubbies

Features By Derek Bacon on January 11, 2013

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]]>https://themoviewer.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/film-school-rejects-reactions-to-oscars-2013/feed/0Film School RejectsangelaleongFILM JOCKEYS HEADERFilm Jockeys Webcomic #5NME: When Movie Quotes and Good Design Unitehttps://themoviewer.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/nme-when-movie-quotes-and-good-design-unite/
https://themoviewer.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/nme-when-movie-quotes-and-good-design-unite/#respondWed, 30 Jan 2013 15:17:46 +0000http://themoviewer.wordpress.com/?p=1129NME blogs (and reports, if you can call it that) about movies as well, it seems. Head over to their website to for all the posters – including Transformers, Leon: The Professional and Rocky – and then follow the link on their page to buy from the original creator (who’s got a very funky website himself). Here’s a preview of five of the posters:

The words are a little hard to read, unfortunately, so here’re the quotes in plain text:

Indiana Jones: “I don’t know, I’m making this up as I go along.”

Darth Vader: “You don’t know the power of the Dark side.”

Han Solo: “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.”

Yoda: “Do or do not, there is no try.”

Luke Skywalker: “I have a very bad feeling about this.”

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]]>https://themoviewer.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/nme-when-movie-quotes-and-good-design-unite/feed/0angelaleongNME Indiana JonesNME Star Wars 5NME Star Wars 3NME Star Wars 2NME Star Wars 1H-57: Shortology Movies Collectionhttps://themoviewer.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/h-57-shortology-movies-collection/
https://themoviewer.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/h-57-shortology-movies-collection/#respondSun, 27 Jan 2013 15:01:56 +0000http://themoviewer.wordpress.com/?p=1115Cool stuff. I adore minimalist designs, and this one takes the prize where movie posters are concerned – it’s not a conventional minimalist poster per se, but a minimalistic take on the entire plot of these movies. I am familiar enough with only about three of the featured posters, which appear below, and as a fan of the Lord of the Rings I have to say the Rings poster is absolutely hilarious.

]]>https://themoviewer.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/h-57-shortology-movies-collection/feed/0H-57angelaleongH-57 - AvatarH-57 - The MatrixH-57 - The Lord of the RingsFilm School Rejects: ‘Les Miserables’: A Guide to the Surprising Depth of Its Stars’ Singing Backgroundshttps://themoviewer.wordpress.com/2013/01/18/film-school-rejects-les-miserables-a-guide-to-the-surprising-depth-of-its-stars-singing-background/
https://themoviewer.wordpress.com/2013/01/18/film-school-rejects-les-miserables-a-guide-to-the-surprising-depth-of-its-stars-singing-background/#respondThu, 17 Jan 2013 16:49:51 +0000http://themoviewer.wordpress.com/?p=1131I had no idea.

Here for the full story, including videos and the commentaries on Eddie Redmayne (as Maurius), Samantha Barks (Eponine) and Colm Wilkinson (Bishop of Digne).

By Kate Erbland on December 5, 2012

‘Les Miserables’: A Guide to the Surprising Depth of Its Stars’ Singing Backgrounds

Let it never be said that director Tom Hooper took the easy road with his follow-up feature to his Oscar-winning The King’s Speech. While Hooper’s decision to again tackle a period piece with a new film version of an already often-adapted piece of work might have seemed simple when it was first announced, Hooper’s inspired idea to make his Les Miserables as close to an actual stage production as possible is anything but safe or expected. With Hooper making the bold decision to use “live” singing from his cast (not going the more traditional route of lip-syncing and recording tracks in post-production), his version of Les Miserables places quite the premium on getting truly great musical performances out of its stars.

Which is why it might be confusing to many a moviegoer that the cast of Hooper’s Les Mis is rounded out by big name movie stars that most people wouldn’t necessarily associate with the Great White Way.

But Hooper knew exactly what he was doing when he cast such stars as Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathway, and Amanda Seyfried in his film, because while the cast of Les Miserables is rife with well-known acting talent, it’s also filled to the brim with exceptional (and, in most cases, exceptionally trained) songbirds.

Not sold on the dulcet tones and vocal stylings of this new Les Mis cast? Let’s take a look at their singing backgrounds.

Hugh Jackman (Jean Valjean)

Here’s the thing – Hugh Jackman is a huge stage star. He is a tremendously talented singer and actor. The man has won a Special Tony Award for Extraordinary Contribution to the Theatre Community, for chrissakes. Jackman has been nominated and won a slew of awards – from Mo Awards to Drama Desk Awards to Olivier Awards to Tonys – for not only his stage work, but specifically his stage musical work. Jackman’s best-known musical theater roles include work in Oklahoma!, Carousel, and The Boy From Oz. He’s also hoofed it on stage for the masses at the Emmys and the Tonys, and he even belted out some tunes for the Happy Feet soundtrack.

Of all the stars in Les Miserables, Jackman is by far the most qualified to lead such a massive production. We’ll put it this way, if someone complains that Jackman isn’t a good singer, they’re wrong.

Russell Crowe (Inspector Javert)

While Crowe has kept his musical stylings mostly out of his acting work, he’s been singing and playing guitar since he was a kid. In fact, Crowe’s first real taste performing as an adult came care of (amusingly enough) his work as a musician in the mid-1980s. Under the name “Russ Le Roq.” Who had a first single called “I Just Want To Be Like Marlon Brando.” Weren’t the eighties just the best?

Post-Russ Le Roq, Crowe played Eddie/Dr. Scott in two productions of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, lending him some pretty sweet stage musical cred. After that didn’t turn into more acting or theater work, he turned to busking (so Once of him).

Eventually, Crowe’s acting career took off, but he never let go of his musical dreams. Crowe’s best-known band, 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, was formed in 1992. The band recorded three full-length records before “dissolving” in 2005. Crowe then started another band, Russell Crowe & The Ordinary Fear of God, which still performs today.

Les Miserables is Crowe’s first full-scale musical feature film. Depending on audience reaction, it might be his last.

Anne Hathaway (Fantine)

If you’ve somehow avoided the rampant praise heaped on Hathaway’s tragic portrayal of destitute prostitute Fantine, congratulations? Here is some more? While we here at FSR tend to shy away from just cheaply yelling “surefire Oscar winner!” in place of deep, insightful criticism (especially around this time of year), the buzz is true – Hathaway is stunning in Les Miserables.

And why shouldn’t she be? Hathaway is a wonderful actress, but what she really wants to do is sing. A big performer in her high school theater company, Hathaway’s first professional stage production, “Carnival!” in 2002, might have come well after she was established as an actress, but Hathaway hasn’t stopped belting things out since. She sang in Ella Enchanted, Hoodwinked!, and Rio, and while her big! feature! musical! debut! (that would have been Joel Schumacher’s The Phantom of the Opera) didn’t pan out, the wait to see Hathaway in a fully musical role has been worth it with Les Mis. She’s long been attached to play Judy Garland in a biopic, she didn’t miss a chance for a musical number when she hosted the Oscars, and she’s had some real fun with goofy trills on both Saturday Night Live and Conan. She wants to sing. Let her. It’s good.

And, fun fact! Hathaway’s own mom, Kate McCauley Hathaway, once played Fantine in the U.S. national tour of Les Miserables. It’s in her blood, people.

Amanda Seyfried (Cosette)

Some seem to have all forgotten about Mamma Mia! And, while some of us might want to forget it (hi, Pierce Brosnan), when it comes to Seyfried’s singing career, we certainly can’t discount her work there. While Seyfried got her start on soaps, she also spent a lot of time as a teen doing voice lessons – including two years of opera lessons, which sound totally awesome and probably a bit scary. 2008′s Mamma Mia! is clearly her best-known musical work pre-Les Miserables, and for that film, Seyfried recorded no less than five songs. Her songs have also appeared on the soundtracks for Dear John and L’il Red Riding Hood.

Seyfried’s audition process for Les Mis reportedly took over four months and, during at least some of that time, she was also trying to grab the Fantine role. When Hathaway was cast for that part, Seyfried was offered Cosette (the adult version of the role she once played as a kiddo in a one-off concert at age seven).

Helena Bonham Carter (Madame Thenardier)

Bonham Carter’s credits include stage, screen, television, and radio. Her high, often-whispery voice is one of her many, many trademarks. She’s got sass and panache, but Bonham Carter has done scarce little actual singing. She didn’t sing on-screen until 2007′s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (though she did sing for 2005′s Corpse Bride).

Weird, right? Turns out, Bonham Carter had to convince her own partner (Tim Burton, you know) that she could sing for his Sweeney Todd. Bonham Carter took singing lessons for months to convince Burton she was right for the part, all while he continued to look at other actresses for the role.

Sacha Baron Cohen (Thenardier)

While it would be easy to joke that Baron Cohen should just stick to his silly singing work as Borat, Ali G, and Bruno, the funny man seems bound and determined to change that perception – between his work in Sweeney Todd, Les Miserables, and that gestating Freddie Mercury biopic, Baron Cohen definitely wants to be recognized for his voice work.

You’ll be shocked to learn that Baron Cohen has no formal voice training.

***

My take-aways…

On Russell Crowe

“Crowe then started another band, Russell Crowe & The Ordinary Fear of God, which still performs today.” Must. Check. Them out.

“Les Miserables is Crowe’s first full-scale musical feature film. Depending on audience reaction, it might be his last.“ Sneakily snarky.

On Anne Hathaway

“…and while her big! feature! musical! debut! (that would have been Joel Schumacher’s The Phantom of the Opera) didn’t pan out…” She was?!

“She’s long been attached to play Judy Garland in a biopic…” She is?!

On Amanda Seyfried

“Some seem to have all forgotten about Mamma Mia! And, while some of us might want to forget it (hi, Pierce Brosnan)…” Openly snarky.

“…she also spent a lot of time as a teen doing voice lessons – including two years of opera lessons, which sound totally awesome and probably a bit scary.” Yes. Yes it does.

On Helena Bonham Carter

“Turns out, Bonham Carter had to convince her own partner (Tim Burton, you know) that she could sing for his Sweeney Todd.”

On Sacha Baron Cohen

“…and that gestating Freddie Mercury biopic…” Thank you for the reminder.

A refreshing perspective on this year’s Oscars, and a very succinct, sharp analysis.

On This Year’s Oscar Nominations: What A Glorious Mess

Everyone calm down. The Oscar nominations are not a disaster. They actually make for the most exciting awards season in recent memory. I know that for many of us this took a few minutes to notice. I am, frankly, still pretty ticked off about Kathryn Bigelow somehow missing a nomination for Best Director. I’d rant about this, but Monika Bartyzel over at Movies.com has already done an excellent job breaking it down. Other things aren’t so much infuriating as they are irritatingly dull, like a Best Supporting Actor category full of former winners and a studio-dominated Best Animated Feature. Add that to the embarrassing jokes Emma Stone and Seth McFarlane threw at us at 8:30AM EST, and it’s not surprising Twitter turned into a mini-maelstrom of bitter resentment.

However, there is much to be stoked about! There are the little things, like four nominations for my beloved Anna Karenina. There are littler things, like Quvenzhané Wallis becoming the youngest Best Actress nominee in history. There are the littlest things: PES’s Fresh Guacamole might be the shortest Oscar nominee in history with a running time of just over 90 seconds. Finally, the big picture is also a lot more intriguing than anyone would have guess just a few months ago.

Let me put it this way: no one has any idea who is going to win Best Picture. People are beginning to coalesce around Lincoln, but the dust has barely settled since yesterday’s announcement. Just before the nominations it looked like it could be a four-way race between Steven Spielberg’s bearded historical drama, Argo, Les Misérables, and Zero Dark Thirty. Then, surprising everyone, there was nary a Best Director nomination in sight for Ben Affleck, Tom Hooper or Kathryn Bigelow. It looked, momentarily, as if that could mean Lincoln was on the precipice of a clean sweep through the last six weeks of the season. I think I may even have tweeted as much.

It is nowhere near that simple, and for that we should all be terrible [sic] excited. Often by this point we have a clear front-runner and a film or two waiting (usually hopelessly) on the sidelines. This year is a grand, glorious mess. Lincoln is at the head of the pack with 12 nominations, but Life of Pi is right behind with 11. No one thought Ang Lee’s film was a major contender, but now he’s in and Affleck, Bigelow, and Hooper are out. This means that the year’s most admirable 3D extravaganza has a decent shot at running away with the whole thing. Silver Linings Playbook also has a bit of hope, having been dealt quite the hand in the acting categories. It’s the first film since 1981’s Reds to score a nod in each acting category. There are an awful lot of actors in the Academy, and we already know they love the film.

Nor would I completely write off the three films now out of the directors’ race. Argo just picked up the top prize at the Critics’ Choice Awards (and Best Director award for Affleck). It’s true that only three films have ever won Best Picture without a director nomination, and two of those (Wings and Grand Hotel) were too early to really even count in this sort of discussion. Driving Miss Daisy, however, sets an interesting precedent. Perhaps I’ll address the specifics of what the dynamics of 1990 could mean for this race in a later column, but for now let’s just say that Argo and Zero Dark Thirty are much better films than Daisy and I doubt anyone was nearly as shocked that Bruce Beresford missed a Best Director nod as they are for Bigelow and Affleck.

So there you have it: Lincoln at the top, Life of Pi and Silver Linings Playbook suddenly looking much better, and Les Misérables, Argo, and Zero Dark Thirty not dead yet.

What does that mean for Best Director? Well, who knows. I’ll say this: if Best Picture goes to Lincoln, Life of Pi, or Silver Linings Playbook, director will probably match up. But if somehow things shake out another way and we find ourselves staring at Best Director winner Michael Haneke (not impossible, given that Best Picture nomination), look for Argo to come sweeping in to steal the show at the end of the night. Suddenly it isn’t impossible to imagine these winners at the top: Argo, Michael Haneke, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Emmanuelle Riva.

That Best Actress category is also wide open. Last night both Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence won at the Critics’ Choice Awards, and they will likely both pick up a Golden Globe on Sunday. Yet while the BFCA and HFPA have multiple categories, Oscar only gives out one Best Actress statue. If the two ingénues are head to head, suddenly it’s a lot easier to imagine someone swooping in from the wings. That could be Naomi Watts or Riva, though probably not Wallis.

So as you can see, this awards season is the best kind of chaos. It’s possible that the Globes and the various guild awards will clear everything up, but if they’re anything like the Critics’ Choice Awards they might just muddy the waters even further. It’s entirely possible that Kathryn Bigelow or Ben Affleck will pick up the prize at the Globes or the DGA, and if that happens we should respond with peals of joy. Even if you don’t love all of the films (I’m a fan of probably 50% of the contenders), this is one of the more interesting races in a long time. Embrace it.

Oh, and Best Supporting Actor could also go any number of ways, but talking about five former winners might put me to sleep.

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